Pandemic over, Omicron last variant? WHO slams fake news, warns against Covid laxity

Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in some countries like China, and a new variant being found by Israel, the World Health Organisation has issued a warning against misinformation causing laxity in precautions.

"We have huge amounts of misinformation that's out there. The misinformation that Omicron is mild; misinformation that the pandemic is over; misinformation that this is the last variant that we will have to deal with. This is really causing a lot of confusion that's out there,” WHO's Covid-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said.

The WHO shared that the world saw an 8% increase in Covid-19 cases with more than 11 million cases being reported and this is despite a significant reduction in the number of tests being conducted worldwide.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO chief said, “After several weeks of declines, reported cases of Covid-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia. These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg."

Meanwhile, WHO also cautioned about the newly emerged sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.2 which is anticipated to be the most transmissible variant so far.

Also watch: What is 'Stealth Omicron', the Covid-19 sub-variant causing a surge in Asia and Europe

Kerkhove said, "So, it's a combination of factors that is resulting in this increase. First is we still have Omicron, which is transmitting at a very intense level around the world. We have sub-lineages of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 even. And this is the most transmissible variant we have seen of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to date."